Roman Religion / Edition 1

by Clifford Ando

Overview

This book introduces students to the complex and foreign world of Roman religion and to major trends in its study. Praised in the Enlightenment for its supposed tolerance, it has been vilified for persecuting the early Christians. It professed a profound conservatism and yet received myths from Greece and Asia and gods from every corner of the Empire.Clifford Ando presents fourteen papers on central topics in the study of Roman religion and its connections with Roman literature, history and culture. Subjects treated include the nature and development of religious authority and religious institutions; the control of space and time; and religion's role in fashioning Roman identity. Also under discussion is the narration and analysis of Rome's transition from Republic to Empire.In introducing the volume and its individual parts, Clifford Ando considers issues of method and substance arising from the study of Roman religion and places each chapter in context. His selection of papers illustrates a range from approaches from Europe, Britain and America during a century of scholarship. Four papers are published in English for the first time. The book includes a chronology, biographical dictionary, glossary and guide to further reading; all passages of ancient languages are translated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780748615667
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	07/11/2003
Series:	Edinburgh Readings on the Ancient World
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Clifford Ando is Professor of Classics, History and Law at the University of Chicago and Research Fellow in the Department of Classics and World Languages at the University of South Africa. He is the author of Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire (2000); The Matter of the Gods (2008); Law, Language and Empire in the Roman tradition (2011) and editor of Roman Religion (Edinburgh 2003).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Religion, Law, and Knowledge in Classical Rome; Introduction to Part 1; 1. On Comparison Jonathan Z Smith; 2. Polis-Religion and its Alternatives in the Roman Provinces Gregory Woolf; Part II Religious Institutions and Religious Authority; Introduction to Part II; 3. From Republic to Principate: Priesthood, Religion and Ideology Richard Gordon; 4. A Feature of Roman Religion Arthur Darby Nock; Part III Ritual and Myth; Introduction to Part III; 5. The Ludi Saeculares and the Carmen Saeculare Denis Feeney; 6. Cults, Myths, and Politics at the Beginning of the Empire John Scheid, trans. Philip Purchase; Part IV Theology; Introduction to Part IV; 7. The Theological Efforts of the Roman Upper Classes in the First Century BC Arnaldo Momigliano; 8. Hierarchy and Structure in Roman Polytheism: Roman Methods of Conceiving Action John Scheid, trans. Philip Purchase; Part V Roman and Alien; Introduction to Part V; 9. Religious Toleration in Republican Rome John North; 10. A Religion for the Empire Clifford Ando; Part VI Space and Time; Introduction to Part VI; 11. Loca Sancta Sabine MacCormack; 12. A Complex of Times: No More Sheep on Romulus' Birthday Mary Beard; Part VII Continuity and Change, From Republic to Empire ntroduction to Part VII; 13. Roman State Religion in the Mirror of Augustan and Late Republican Apologetics Carl Koch, trans. Christopher Barnes; 14. The Historical Development of Roman Religion Georg Wissowa, trans Christopher Barnes.

Editorial Reviews

Scholarship of a high order

Dec 19-26 2003 Times Literary Supplement

All the work presented is superlative … I highly recommend reading the collection in its entirety as this facilitates full appreciation of the thematic overlap amongst the papers … Ando's sub-topical introductions succeed admirably in articulating important topics and in locating the selected papers within the state of the field ... a challenging, stimulating and worthy book.

BMCR

Scholarship of a high order

All the work presented is superlative … I highly recommend reading the collection in its entirety as this facilitates full appreciation of the thematic overlap amongst the papers … Ando's sub-topical introductions succeed admirably in articulating important topics and in locating the selected papers within the state of the field ... a challenging, stimulating and worthy book.

From the Publisher